12 October, 2014

This year I attended the AMQF for the first time because my most favourite quilter, Jenny Doan or the Missouri Star Quilt Company, was one of the key Teachers/Presenters. I've been watching Jenny via YouTube for at least 4 years and, in the middle of the night, and when I'm feeling down, she has lifted my spirits and made me smile ... and she wasn't any less a 'ray of sunshine' in person!

Here is their website:

https://www.missouriquiltco.com/

And here is the quilt we made in the 'mystery' workshop I attended with my good friend Eve and a bunch of the lovely ladies from the Gawler Quilting Circle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNUkLoGQY8

The AMQF is convened and facilitated by the tireless work of the amazing Sharon and Shontelle of Patchwork on Parade:

http://www.patchworkonparade.com.au/

And here is more about the AMQF - hopefully there will be more photos soon!

http://2014.amqfestival.com.au/

http://www.amqfestival.blogspot.com.au/

It was an absolutely amazing experience - thoroughly professional in every aspect, yet relaxed and friendly. Am already saving for the next one in 2016!

11 September, 2014

Two weeks ago was the Gawler Show for 2014 - one of the larger country shows for South Australia. I entered two hand-woven items ( a jacket and a king-size shawl) but neither won anything - I think they were placed in the wrong category as well because they were on a completely different trestle to the other woven items. And I entered 7 quilted items, scoring 1 first (and a gorgeous blue/white rosette), 2 seconds and 2 thirds - pretty good going!

I really should re-photograph some of my quilts as I'm using old photographs here. One of the 2nd place winners isn't even photographed yet, and the vivid blue/watery one below is shown only partially completed.

It's been a very eventful few months since my last posting, not least of which have been an extended hospital stay and also an extended illness. More recently we've just had our first driving holiday in 5 years - we had to "rob Peter to pay Paul" but felt it was more important for the family to destress and reconnect.

As to quilting progress, I was able to lay out the finished rows from the "This Goes With That" English-paper-pieced quilt pattern (and my friend's cat promptly, of course, sat upon it!). All the hexagon shapes have been sewn together, the triangular points that will create the 'star' effect sewn on, and all that connected together into rows - now I can start sewing the rows together! ... and then I can start the whole process again with the dark hexagons, of which there is an equal amount to the light hexagons shown in the photo.

I do like the blues and pinks of the
original version as per the book, but found the overall effect with the creams
and tans was a little washed out for my liking.I had a lot of trouble trying to work out what colour theme I wanted –
the batik one from the book really caught my eye, but the blue on blue ones did
nothing for me:

In the end I decided to go with
mid-range colours (not pastels and not bolds) and have chosen the ‘Under the
Australian Sun’ range by Leesa Chandler, in particular the ‘Gum Flower’
design.Unfortunately this is a
discontinued range so I’m having to scrabble to get enough of the colours , but
will still have to supplement from other fabric ranges to fill in the gaps

So, since buying the book and
sitting in on some classes starting a couple of months ago, I’ve only manage to
trace the patterns because I’ve only managed to obtain about ¾ of the fabrics
just the other week – hopefully I will actually begin to cut and sew at the
next class!

As I progress through all 140 6" blocks that make up the quilt (yes, I know, it's a lot of blocks!) I've decided to do an idea I heard another quilter from the Southern Cross Quilters online quilting group come up with - as I complete each block I will be putting a gold coin into a box so that by the end of it I will have a nice little stash of money toward fabric for another quilt!

About Me

Edge of the famous Barossa Valley wine growing region in a large country town, South Australia, Australia

My name is Marina (52yo) and I have been happily married to my husband, John (62yo), for 18 years. We have three sons ranging in ages from 11 to 17.
We homeschooled for about 7 years but in 2011 we had to put our children into mainstream schooling due to health and family reasons.
Apart from my husband and family, my passions are my Catholic faith, patchwork quilting, spinning, weaving, scrapbooking & I enjoy ballroom dancing (although not since I started having babies!).
Because of our keen interest in optimum health and non-toxic products and foods we have a Neways business (http://www.neways.com.au/).